August round up

This month had lots of random little events taking place, like spending the day with my mum and my niece where we watched Finding Dory together and hatched a Pikachu! We also got to have lunch together a few days later which was the cutest thing ever! There was also some surprisingly cool sibling bonding, Instagram decided to take on Snapchat… I think I like it… Though… Plagerism is bad. The town I live in hosted a Comic Con, there is nothing cooler than walking through town and spotting Spider Man chilling outside Costa Coffee tbh, I ventured to my home town to spend some time with the long distance bff and I managed to read SO MANY BOOKS! I think its because I have super writer’s block right now, so instead of writing, I’ve been reading. The writer’s block needs to gtfo though because writing is like my thing and what do I do if I don’t write?

What I read this month:

Mrs Hemingway – Naomi Wood
If you’ve been here before, you’ll know I have a fondness about the great American writers of the twenties, I’ve read a couple of books about Zelda Fitzgerald and I’ve previously read The Paris Wife, which is primarily about Hadley Hemingway. This is the story of each of Ernest Hemingway’s wives at the end of their respective marriages, its an addictive read and I raced through it!

The Marble Collector – Cecelia Ahern
Ohhhh. The cover is super pretty… You know when you love an author and then you read something of theirs and you’re just like… I didn’t like it? That is me with this book. The thing is, I have loved so many of her books and I read her YA novel earlier in the year (check out the review here) and was a little disappointed, mostly because it didn’t feel like one of her books but this… There was none of the beauty or mystery of her other books with this. It wasn’t bad, it was just a bit meh.

And the hippos were boiled in their tanks – William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac
You should see the library video I posted below for the full story of how I ended up searching for Burroughs and finding this… You should def watch it if you like Matty Healy’s face and who doesn’t love Matty Healy’s face? (Also thing that happened this month is that dear Matty had a haircut.) Anyway, this is the fictionalised account of the Carr/Kramarr situation as detailed in the film Kill Your Darlings. It reminded me a lot of On the Road, very stream of consciousness and definitely not to everyone’s taste, but it does have merit.

Noon in Paris, Eight in Chicago – Douglas Cowie
I picked this up purely because I like cities and I’ve been to both of these places, I really wasn’t expecting a whirlwind romance between two actual people who actually existed! Now I have to research Simone de Beauvoir and Nelson Algren. This is basically a fictionalised account of their relationship which was incredibly long distance and yet, strangely worked!

We are all made of molecules – Susin Nielson
This was cute! I was expecting it to be a bit more sciencey what with the molecules in the title and all, but it was a cute YA nonetheless. I like a good family drama and you certainly got that here, when Stewart and Ashley both find their families fragmenting and then merging together. It was a quick read that broached a lot of big subjects in an easy to swallow way. Also the cover is super pretty and it involved a cat with a great name.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – J K Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Throne
Did I mention I got this for 83p? No? Well, I got this for 83p. Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t pay any more for it. I wanted to like this so much…. But… I didn’t. Like… Without wanting to be that guy who spoils the whole thing for everyone hanging on for the stage show, it was kinda like someone who had never read Harry Potter put this together. None of the original characters held any of their characteristics, Harry Potter spent the whole thing blaming his lack of father figures on his problems and I’m like da fuck Harry? You conveniently forgetting Sirius and Lupin and Hagrid and Arthur Weasley there? It was full of time travel plot holes, Ron might as well have not even be there. Seriously, the only good thing about this was Scorpius Malfoy. Well, until we chucked all that queer baiting in, but hey ho, should be used to that by now. Anyway, that boy is a gift to this world. Maybe it’ll be better on stage but, yeah. My disappointment in this was only matched by my first ever Hershey bar. The Cursed Child has become my new Phantom Menace. I will now ignore the existence of this for the rest of time.

You’re never weird on the internet, almost – Felicia Day
Felicia Day is a bit of hero of mine, if you’re not familiar with her name, she is basically the queen of the nerds (though it appears that although its a title she enjoys, it isn’t a self proclaimed one) she made her name making her own web series, filmmaking, acting and generally being a geek goddess to us mere mortals (she is also in Supernatural if that is an easier reference point). I’ve long admired her work and been interested in how she managed to gain success doing the fun things that she loves, so this has been on my TBR list for what feels like forever. It read much like I imagine having a conversation with Felicia would sound, the opening chapter instantly made me warm to her and it was in equal parts funny and inspiring (to me who is also a nerd anyway.) I feel like I don’t read enough non fiction. Recommend me more?

The Fiction Class – Susan Breen
This was legit the worse thing to read when you have writer’s block! This is about a woman who has been writing her novel for the past seven years and has no idea how to end it, despite the fact that she’s struggling to be a writer, she is telling other people how to write by running a creative writing class alongside moaning about her mother and starting a relationship with one of her pupils. Maybe I need to go to a writing class to sort myself out…?

Kindred Spirits – Rainbow Rowell
I wanted to grab this when it came out for World Book Day and then I spotted it at the library. I may have gone overboard in the library. I had to beg an assistant to let me take more than my allotted amount. Anyway, this is a cute, short (literally less than 100 pages) story about a girl so excited for the release of The Force Awakens, that she sits on the street for four days with two random people… I can’t say that’s its my favourite Rainbow Rowell story, but it was fun.

Sofia Khan is not Obliged – Aiysha Malik
I’ve wanted to read this since watching this video, so I was very excited to spot it on the recently returned shelf at the library. This was so good on so many levels! Firstly, it was just bloody hilarious, secondly, it was nice to read a book about someone who wasn’t white and have an insight into a different culture. I need to read more books with non white protagonists. Hmu with recommendations. If you’ve not read this, check out my review!

Films I watched this month:

You may have noticed if you follow me on twitter, have been keeping up with my Film reviews in 10 tweets or less posts or this video, that I really like films and that I spend a lot of time watching them, so here are all the films (some new, some rewatches) that graced my television this month!

Finding Dory

The Great Mouse Detective

Kill Your Darlings
Thought I’d give it a watch seeing as I read Burroughs and Kerouac’s fictional version of events.

Wreck it Ralph

Hotel Transylvania

Bridget Jones’ Diary
OMG THEY ARE SMOKING INDOORS was my first thought when rewatching this. Followed by DEAR GOD I AM OLD ENOUGH TO RELATE TO THIS NOW.

TV I watched his month:

Stranger Things
SO GOOD. It was like ET, The Goonies and Supernatural all rolled into one! Bring me series two immediately!

Gilmore Girls
So, right I didn’t watch this when it was first a thing, then it arrived on Netflix and I thought I’d watch it before the revival, now I’m hooked which is ANNOYING because the last two seasons let down the entire show.

Tattoo Fixers
Guilty Pleasure, don’t shame me.

Ripper Street

Great British Bake Off
I love this I’m so happy its back.

Pretty Little Liars
THAT LAST EPISODE THOUGH.

My favourite Instagram posts this month:

A post shared by leah-marie (@leeeeeeeeah) on Aug 3, 2016 at 8:16am PDT

I hate plagarism as much as the next person, but I do kinda love Instagram stories and I’m using it so much more than I do Snapchat… Which might be a problem considering I do a snapchat series over on youtube!

A post shared by leah-marie (@leeeeeeeeah) on Aug 19, 2016 at 2:27pm PDT

I hate having to leave London behind 😦

What I did on YouTube this month:

What I loved on YouTube this month:

One Day I’ll manage to do one of these without mentioning Casey Neistat, now is not that time. Of course he had to make a video about the Instagram stories vs Snapchat thing (I prefer the Insta stories… hbu?), I also loved the Midnight Beast’s Pokemon Parody. I like his face and also this was funny af, so here’s danisnotonfire offering the best advice on the internet, the Hillywood Show are back with another INCREDIBLE parody video that you HAVE to see and just because I am a sucker for room tours and hers are always super pretty, here’s Noodlerella’s new room. (I want her Ghibli postcards so hard.)